Hondo

The following article is an
interactive article. Sources are not cited with footnotes, but
presented as hyperlinks. Each source will open in the window as a JPG
image when clicked on. Exact date and periodical is listed in the
title of the image (eg. MOTIONPICTUREEXHIBITOR_071454.jpg is from The
Motion Picture Exhibitor, July 14, 1954).

The 3-D Release of HONDO
by Bob Furmanek and Jack Theakston

John Wayne's western masterpiece HONDO (1953) has long been
heralded by critics as one of "the Duke's" finest independent
achievements. Shot on location in Mexico in co-operation with
Warner Brothers, the film boasted many high-profile aspects.
Aside from being Wayne's first self-produced color production, the script was written
by James Edward Grant, a favorite of Wayne's, based on a story by the
great western writer, Louis L'Amour. HONDO's cast also
introduced
Geraldine Page in a role which garnered her an Academy Award
nomination.

Besides John Wayne himself,
HONDO's most important selling point was its stereoscopic photography.
However, this significant aspect of HONDO's history has been grossly
mis-stated in recent years, and it is time to finally set the record
straight. Since 1991, representatives of the
John Wayne Estate have claimed that HONDO only played in a few theaters
in its 3-D version. They have also said that Jack Warner pulled the
plug on the 3-D release because of the public's lack of interest in the
process.

In 2007, the company doing a
digital restoration of the film has claimed that it was photographed as
a "color anaglyph." Major newspapers and well-respected industry trade
journals have now perpetuated the myth that HONDO (and all other 3-D
features from the 1950's) were originally shown in this inferior
red/blue system.

The truth is that
HONDO was originally
shown in Polaroid 3-D. In fact, HONDO had one of the widest releases of any
3-D feature from the 1950's, playing the majority of its engagements
in depth. According to aJanuary 1954 article in Boxoffice Magazine, there were 5,000 theaters equipped to run 3-D motion pictures. From the cavernous 4,500 seat Fox Theater in St. Louis, to the cozy 300 seat LaBelle Theater in South Charleston, West Virginia, HONDO graced many of those silver screens in its third-dimensional version.

The following article will present these facts documented with interactive sources.

Production Background

Searching for an alternative to draw audiences back to theaters from
television in the early 1950s, studios and exhibitors alike put their
efforts into realism productions and in November of 1952, stereoscopic
movies made a big splash at the box office. Arch Oboler's African
adventure, BWANA DEVIL opened to great acclaim, despite being generally
considered a mediocre film. The public interest was not in what
was going on in the film, but what was going on in the theater.
Lions were leaping into the audience. There was an added
dimension to the screen-- depth. Despite decades of experiments,
short subjects and failed attempts at 3-D, BWANA DEVIL brought to the
public an economic system of depth-realism. Oboler's production
gained its notoriety from its use of the
Natural
Vision three-dimensional camera. Natural Vision operated with two cameras,
focused at angles and distances imitating the two human eyes, recorded onto
two separate negatives. In projection, utilizing Polaroid
filters
in front of two projectors in synchronization, the two prints struck
from these negatives were projected onto a silver screen, where the
audience member wearing special Polaroid glasses would then maintain an
illusion of stereoscopic imagery in their sight.

Word spread around town instantly of Oboler's financial success, and all of the major studios quickly went into
production with their own 3-D films, either using the Natural Vision
camera rig or devising their own. The most successful of
these
films was Warner's HOUSE OF WAX (April 1953), starring Vincent Price
and also released in the WarnerPhonic stereophonic sound system. Jack Warner, so impressed by the financial success of the
film, announced a rigorous schedule of 22 films in 3-D, representing
half of the studios upcoming shooting schedule.

HONDO was slated to be Warner Bros. first widescreen movie. They had shut down the studio in April of 1953 for a
period of evaluation and testing. Jack Warner announced the studios all-widescreen policy on May 7, 1953. On May 19, he presented the new All-Media Camera,
a camera designed to shoot in any format-- black and white or color,
3-D and/or widescreen, or flat. The rig was designed and
built by the studios camera department, and would be
utilized for the first time on HONDO. Cinematographers Robert
Burks
and Archie Stout would be shooting on location, in 3-D and widescreen.
Films shot with the All-Media rig were composed for the aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

Principal photography began in Camargo, Mexico on June 11. The
picturesque landscape would provide the perfect visual setting, but the
director and
cinematographers had trouble adjusting to the new camera. On June 18,
Jack Warner viewed three reels of dailies and was concerned about the
lack of close-ups,
especially in the scene where John Wayne first meets Geraldine Page. He
sent a telegram to the Duke and said "Director is not moving you and
Geraldine close
enough to camera. Everything seems to be too far away. Must have usual
over-shoulder close shots individuals and tight twos in
three-dimensional pictures so
we can see peoples expressions and everything else." On June 20, John
Wayne replied: "Farrow has done everything but play music to get camera
in for close shots.
Seems our lenses are matted for 1.75 or 1.85 screen, plus fact that
cameraman is over cautious for fear front office will scream eyestrain.
Will show cameraman your
wire. Think it will do the trick. He is really working hard but has
limited us in making shots because of his fear and reluctance to do a
shot that might throw
background lines too wide an angle."

Jack Warner's advice was taken, and Robert Burks started moving the
camera in tighter for close shots. However, over the next several weeks,
the elements proved to
be a major problem. The intense heat, dust, wind and rain caused
multiple delays throughout shooting. As a result, there are several
shots in HONDO that are flat,
due to a malfunction with one of the cameras.

By the
end
of the summer of 1953, interest began to dwindle in 3-D, resulting
in a quick decline of both productions and exhibitions.
Projectionists were finding it difficult to maintain synchronization
between the two reels of film running during projection, a malfunction
that would cause severe eye-strain and headaches for the audience. On September 16, 1953, 20th Century Fox premiered their
anamorphic process CinemaScope with their production of THE ROBE. They wasted no time in advertising the new process as
"the modern miracle you see without glasses."
At the same time, several studios reversed their policy which had mandated that
all 3-D movies must play their entire run of stereoscopic playdates
before being available as a standard, flat film. With the studios' new attitude towards
the exhibition format, most exhibitors opted to play the new 3-D releases
flat. By November 1953, 3-D was considered poison at the box office.

But 3-D movies weren't dead yet. Due to newly developed technical
advancements in projection techniques, the studios began a new
campaign to bring back 3-D, with their
ace being a new group of quality, high-budget 3-D films that would
outshine the competition. Among the Fall/Winter 1953
season's titles were
Columbia's
MISS SADIE THOMPSON with Rita Hayworth, Paramount's MONEY
FROM
HOME with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as well as Hal Wallis' timely
Korean War docu-drama CEASE FIRE,
RKO's scandalous production of THE FRENCH LINE with Jane Russell, MGM's
film version of the Cole Porter musical, KISS ME KATE and Warner Bros.'
highly anticipated John Wayne western HONDO.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer
decided to test public opinion: they would exhibit KISS ME KATE in six
theaters.
Three theaters would play the film flat, and the remaining three would
show it in 3-D. The public's reaction would dictate which version would
go into wide release. The 3-D showings had a substantially better
response and KISS ME KATE went into wide release in either format, but
with the suggestion that showmen
across the countryplay the stereoscopic version of its film. With the
exception of Radio City Music Hall, most other engagements for
KATE were in 3-D.

It was into this uncertain climate which HONDO first went into release.
Jack Warner and his studio had been a staunch advocate of 3-D, and
wasted no time in promoting their forthcoming release. The first trade
ads appeared on November 7, and the film was trade-screened for the press on November 16, 1953. The reaction was sensational. Critics
unanimously praised
the film, and its effective use of stereoscopic cinematography. Warner
Bros. was so enthusiastic about the films dimensional qualities, they
made sure to emphasize that fact in their trade ads. In order to
satisfy theaters not equipped for 3-D, Warner Bros. stated that HONDO
would also be available in its flat version. With the official release date set for January, the studio assigned release #312 to the 3-D version, and #349 to the 2-D version.

HONDO continued to pick up box office steam throughout December, where
it opened in such major cities as St. Louis, Los Angeles, Cincinnati,
Portland and Minneapolis. In January, 1954, it opened in additional
cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, Oakland, Denver, Seattle and Toronto.

Despite Warner's announcement that any exhibitor had the option to play
the film
flat, it is interesting to note that until February 1954, all known
bookings of HONDO were stereoscopic in every engagement. In
fact, finding any flat bookings during this period proved difficult. One flat playdate
was found at the sub-run booking of the 800-seat Belmont Theatre in Long Beach, CA, but only after having played two-weeks starting
Christmas Day at the 1,800-seat State Theatre and the 1,200-TowneTheatre, both in 3-D.

March and April of 1954 found HONDO finally beginning to open at
some small theaters and drive-ins which did not have the necessary equipment for
stereoscopic exhibition, long after the 3-D version had
played out its first-run engagements in that particular area.
Even so, bookings in 3-D could still be found in such towns as
Charleston, West Virginia and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

HONDO's 3-D success was not limited to the U.S. On February 27, 1954, it opened
to capacity crowds at London's 1,734-seat Warner Theater, where it would
play for five weeks and bring in over $40,000. Nearly three months later, HONDO was still playing in 3-D in theaters throughout South London.

With an average price of 49-cents a ticket in 1954, HONDO finished up the year
with an
impressive domestic gross
of $4,100,000, a very large percentage of those being stereoscopic
playdates. In 1954, HONDO was the 16th highest grossing film of the year, and
the 106th top grossing film of all time. After Warner's
HOUSE OF WAX, which grossed an astonishing $6,500,000, it was the
second highest grossing 3-D film of the 1950's.